SC quashes plea against Jignesh Shah's bail

MUMBAI: Monday was an action-packed day for Financial Technologies (FTIL) and its main promoter Jignesh Shah. During the day, the Supreme Court dismissed a special leave petition filed by trading clients of NSEL, also called investors, who had challenged a Bombay high court order to grant Shah bail.
In a separate case, the Bombay high court declined to grant an interim stay on an order of the Forward Markets Commission (FMC) that had declared FTIL unfit to run exchanges in the wake of its alleged involvement in the Rs 5,600-crore scam at National Spot Exchange (NSEL).FTIL is the main promoter of NSEL.
In the evening, FTIL announced that it has sold off its entire stake in Bourse Africa, a Mauritius-based commodity derivatives exchange, to Continental Africa Holdings of Mauritius for $40.5 million.
All the three developments are related by a common thread - that of the NSEL scam, in which funds of a large number of speculators are stuck and several regulatory and investigative agencies have been called in for investigation.
In the apex court, trading clients of the currently defunct NSEL had challenged an order by Justice Abhay Thipsay of Bombay HC granting Shah a bail of Rs 5 lakh. Shah was arrested on May 7 by the Economic Offences Wing of the city police for his alleged role in the NSEL scam. On August 22, Justice Thipsay had said that Shah's custody was not essential for further investigation.
On Monday, the apex court granted the trading clients no relief and dismissed their petition. Shah has been charged with criminal misappropriation, forgery, criminal conspiracy and duping investors.
In the Bombay HC, the order came in response to a petition by FTIL seeking relief from the FMC order. It said that the FMC order forced divestment by FTIL of its stake in several companies and resulted in a loss of Rs 1,000 crore. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, the counsel for FTIL, had argued that the government was using the FMC order of December 2013 for a forced merger of NSEL with FTIL.
Singhvi's plea was that since the day (February 28) the HC initially refused the stay of the FMC order, till Monday, there has been a significant change in circumstances. However, with no relief from Bombay HC, FTIL now plans to move the Supreme Court.
In the case of Bourse Africa, an FTIL notice to the exchanges said that its Mauritius subsidiary has signed a definitive agreement with Continental Africa and the entire transaction is expected to close in about seven months.